manila ocean park

After the luxury of staying at my uncle’s house and having a personal driver, the week of March 24-31 was mostly about work. I had to transcribe the interviews I conducted for my Emerging Leaders project, and transcribing is such a thankless job. It takes forever to do—it takes about ten times the time of the actual recording to transcribe it. And I can only do it in small doses. But I had to finish it that week, as the following week we were off to the mountains, where I didn't have access to a computer.

Tuesday (March 25) was set aside for fun, though. (I could not possibly stand just transcribing all week!) We headed out to Manila Ocean Park, a newly-opened but not quite finished complex that is supposed to consist of an oceanarium, open water marine habitat, boutique mall, restaurant row, and function facilities. It had its soft opening at the beginning of March, and it is really only the aquarium part of it that’s built.

We were visiting the Tuesday after Holy Week, figuring that most people will have just traveled over the weekend and would not be going the park. I think we were right (according to the cleaning lady anyway), though there were still quite a few people.

I’m not really sure how I feel about Ocean Park. I had just visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore a couple of weeks before I left for the Philippines, and I know I like that aquarium. (That was my second time going there.) I actually enjoy going to aquariums, but I think I expected something else from Ocean Park. I was thinking something more along the lines of seeing creatures in their natural and actual ocean environment, though of course how could that possibly be when the park is located along the murky waters of Manila Bay.

So, the tunnel is just really this section (towards the end of the exhibits) where it's sort of like an aquarium that goes around on all sides, including overhead. It's a cool notion and all, even if it's not actually in the ocean. But it did seem like a cheap plastic tube with lots of fishes. It absolutely lacked color in terms of the fishes--most of them were the silvery/gray kinds--so it definitely did not have the wow factor. The Philippines has such great coral reefs that it would be great if it could have been simulated somehow in this tunnel section (or featured in the smaller aquariums, for that matter, instead of the fake-looking ones that are there).

To me, the place seemed small (or maybe it's just that it's unfinished or seems unpolished). There wasn’t a great variety of fishes on display, though there were the usual suspects such as clownfishes, lionfishes, seahorses, and sharks.

However, there were some things that I liked because either I normally don't see them given focus or at all featured in other aquariums (unless, of course, I just wasn't paying attention). For instance, I liked the fact that there were separate aquariums for the magnificent sea anemone and the tube anemone (there was a third kind of anemone, but I don't remember what it was) were featured in their own aquariums. However, again being in the Philippines, there are also so many more different kinds of sea anemones that could have been featured.

I enjoyed looking at these live giant clams. I don't think I've ever seen them alive before. It was interesting seeing them breathe through their membranous insides. The bamboo shark eggs clearly showing the embryos are a bit weird. The Japanese spider crab, which is the largest living arthropod, lives at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and can live up to 100 years, is cool.



Here are some other pictures that I like--the reef stonefish--said to be the most venomous fish in the world; a fish or small ray (can't remember what it is) barely showing in the sand; spotted garden eels sticking up and out of the sand; and yellow boxfishes.



I hope that what we saw is not the final, final product; I hope they're still making improvements. And I hope that they really feature and focus on the marine life of the Philippines and its surrounding waters.